1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to child resistant caps, and more particularly to caps with semi-flexible tethered safety collars for sprayers. By sprayers is meant spray containers having atomizers, pumps, pressurized contents with release valves, and other spray dispensing mechanisms.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
Safety caps have been well known for at least three decades and literally come in many hundreds of shapes and forms with diverse mechanisms for achieving safety. The objective of such devices is to slow down or prevent the opening of a dispenser by a child to ultimately reduce or prevent use of a medication or dangerous or hazardous material by a young child who may unwittingly consume some of the contents and suffer severe consequences. The following patents represent four variations on safety caps which exemplify the art:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,974 to Leo Boxer and Robert Boxer describes a safety cap and container combination wherein the container mouth includes a plurality of spaced ribs or flanges, each having a differently located, notched out passageway over which a cap member having at least one projecting internal lug is positioned in a single movement to close the container. In one form of the invention, a bead at the rim of the container mouth may be provided to mate with an internal groove in the cap member to seal tightly the cap member to the container. In order to remove the cap member, it is moved partially away from the container to disengage the bead from the groove and the lug member is then positioned and aligned with each slot and advanced therethrough in successive fashion to open the mouth of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,578 to Gene Ballin sets forth a novel disposable closure. The device includes an opener for opening a closure cap along a score line around the base of an annular channel without piercing the cap. It includes a collar which rotatably and slidably engages the cap and includes a peripheral wall provided with circumferentially spaced depending arcuate teeth of greater thickness than the channel and stop elements which limit the downward movement of the device on the cap. The device is pressed downwardly and rotated so that the teeth wedge between and spread the channel walls to sever the closure along the full length of the score line. The piercing of the channel by the teeth is prevented by the stop elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,718 to Cheung Tung Kong describes a convertible safety cap. A cap is provided for closing a container having a locking portion for use in a precautionary arrangement to prevent children from obtaining access into the container. The cap is convertible so as to cooperate with such a container to provide not only such a precautionary arrangement but also an alternative easy opening arrangement. The invention includes a cap, an annular disk and a locking rim with notches through which tabs on the cap may pass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,243 to Risto Virtinen describes a closing means for a container, tube or the like. This device is a closing means for a nozzle which is fixably mounting on a container or for a tube or the like. The closing means is openable when turned into a predetermined position which is indicated by indicators provided on the closing means and on the container. It is settable diametrically opposite to each other, and characterized in that the lower rim of the closing means or the upper rim of the container is provided with a separate background ring extending at least partially behind the indicator of the closing means and the indicator of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,043 to Kenneth P. Glynn describes a spray dispenser device closure. The device includes a main closure base for attachment to a container, an outer ring, a spray mechanism attached to the base and an overcap. The outer ring has a circular inside wall with a horizontal track for attachment to a track on the base and is connected in such a manner as to be freely and horizontally rotatable thereabout. The overcap has at least one protrusion which has a geometry of adequate size to freely move through cut outs on the ledge of the outer ring. The overcap, having a circular bottom, is inserted into the outer ring and over the spray mechanism. The closing means is openable only when the overcap and the outer ring are turned relative to one another and the alignment of protrusions and cut outs occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,008 to Kenneth P. Glynn describes a container closure device. The device includes a container with a neck, an open top and a horizontal retainer track for affixing a collar ring and a cap upon the neck. The collar ring has a circular inside wall and a horizontal track and is freely rotatable about the retainer track. The collar ring has a ledge to frictionally engage the cap, and has at least one cut out to permit a cap to be inserted and removed from the collar ring. The cap has semi-flexible walls and has at least one protrusion which corresponds to and has adequate size to freely move through the cut outs of the collar ring. The closing means is openable only when the cap and collar ring are held separately and are rotated relative to one another and the alignment of the protrusions and cut outs occurs.
Notwithstanding the significant prior art in this field, it is believed that the present invention, which utilizes a safety collar (outer ring) in the particular fashion described herein, is neither taught nor rendered obvious.